These statistics were done in 2006. I would hope that eight years since the situation has changed.
With the Ebola virus wreaking havoc in Africa one wonders what will happen if this situation is not addressed. I will repeat. Africa is a rich continent. Nigeria is the world's third producer of oil. African leaders needed to make sure that the minerals that are found in Africa are used for the benefit of Africa. The corruption must stop. 'Africa looted for $140bn, leader says
Olusegun Obasanjo: Time to bring looted money home

Africa has lost $140bn through corruption in the decades since independence, Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo has said.
The huge sum - largely spirited away by leaders and their associates - was one of the main reasons why Africa's poverty was so severe.

The Western world must demonstrate practical commitment to assist us by repatriating monies that have been stolen from our treasuries and stashed away in their financial institutions

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Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria's president
Now, Mr Obasanjo told a meeting of civil society organisations in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa, it was time to write rules to help bring some of the money home.
"We are working to get an international convention by which money stolen by corrupt African leaders and stashed abroad is repatriated," Mr Obasanjo said.

Mr Obasanjo said that while the leaders were the main culprits, Western countries which had harboured the stolen loot should bear some responsibility.

"It is not enough to accuse developing countries of corruption," he said.

"The Western world must demonstrate practical commitment to assist us by repatriating monies that have been stolen from our treasuries and stashed away in their financial institutions."

Dirty money

Nigeria has suffered more than most African countries from the tendency of its leaders to treat its economy as a personal cash cow.

Some of Abacha's plundered billions have been returned
While most post-independence leaders have been accused of greater or lesser levels of corruption, its last dictator but one, Sani Abacha, proved the most publicly egregious.
Abacha, who died in office in 1998, and his family squirreled billions of dollars away in foreign bank accounts.

About $1bn has now been returned, the bulk of it from Switzerland.

But much more remains either unaccounted for or - in the case of cash frozen in UK bank accounts - unreturned pending legal action.

The deal to return the money, however, left about $200m in the hands of the Abacha family - a "very difficult" compromise to agree, Mr Obasanjo said.

"If there is an international convention in place, it would have been easier to recover such monies."

Across the board

Nigeria is far from alone in having suffered from its leaders depredations.

For instance in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, billions were looted through exploitation of mineral revenues during the 30-year rule of Mobutu Sese Seko.

In Angola, pressure groups estimate that as much as $1bn a year in oil-related revenue disappears every year.

A new initiative, spearheaded by international financier George Soros and the NGO Global Witness, is trying to persuade oil and mineral companies to publish full accounts of what they pay in tax and other levies so as to shine a spotlight on this kind of theft.

Revealed: TZ thieves have Sh315bn in Swiss banks
By Staff writer
23rd June 2012
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PCCB Director General, Dr Edward Hosea
Some corrupt Tanzanians, including prominent business tycoons and some top government officials, have secretly stashed away a whopping Sh315.5 billion ($196.87 million) in Swiss banks, The Guardian has learnt.

The amount is a quarter of the amount Kenya’s tycoons and politicians have secretly stashed away in Swiss banks.

According to a report released by the Swiss central bank, Swiss National Bank, early this week Tanzania is among eleven African countries whose nationals have secretly stashed away millions of dollars in the country’s banks.

This is the first time the Swiss central bank has released financial details on various culprits who have stolen billions of dollars from Africa - an indication that gone are the days when African thieves enjoyed strong protection of their looted billions by Swiss banks and authorities.

The report further shows that Kenya is the leading offender in East Africa in terms of the amount of money that has been stashed away in Swiss banks. According to the report, a staggering Ksh72 (Tsh1.296 trillion) is in the country’s banks.

For the past one decade global pressure has been mounting on Switzerland to ask its banks to share information about their clients with foreign governments.

Reacting to the report by the Swiss central bank yesterday, director general of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) Dr Edward Hosea (pictured) said, “ We are going to write to the Swiss authorities on Monday (next week) to demand a copy of the report.”

“We want to know the names of those who have secretly stashed billions of shillings in Swiss banks…we promise to recover the stolen billions once we have the list,” the PCCB chief told The Guardian over the phone.

The anti-graft czar further said, “People should stop laundering money to Swiss banks because they are no longer a safe haven as they used to be in the past.

Things have changed so much that in today’s world, no matter how long it might take, in the end all the culprits would be known and arrested.”

Early this week Dr Hosea, who is also chairman of the African Union’s Advisory Board on Anti-corruption (AU-ABC), expressed dismay over the continuing ‘rampant corruption’ in the continent, blaming some leaders for abusing their offices and condoning the malpractice.

Dr Hoseah made the remarks in Arusha when addressing the board’s members who are preparing its annual report to be presented to the AU summit scheduled to take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, next month.

He said Africa has been losing billions of dollars annually through corruption, adding: “On a yearly basis Africa loses more than USD148 billion due to the practice, and the perpetrators of corruption are taking the money from the continent to banks based in the developed world.”

Citing an African Development Bank’s (AfDB) recent report, Dr Hosea said: “It is estimated that 50 percent of tax revenues and USD30 billion in aid for Africa ended up in corruption. Today the scenario has not changed, as some African leaders have become thieves in government offices while petty corruption continues to ravage the continent.”

Between 2001 and 2008 Tanzania lost an estimated $1 billion (Sh1.6 trillion) due to corrupt deals masterminded jointly between corrupt tycoons and some top government officials. Among the scandals that cost the nation dearly were the Bank of Tanzania’s Twin Towers project, looting of the External Payments Arrears (EPA) account, Meremeta gold scandal, Deep Green Finance Ltd, British Aerospace Engineering (BAE) Systems and the controversial radar deal.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

African homes should have running water in homes. When you see the lack of basic things it makes you weep. The leaders need to have the people's interest at heart.

GREED AND COVETEOUSNESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE.
These leaders made a conscious choice to defraud the nation leaving its citizens destitute.